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Police suspend Slipper investigation

Paul Osborne, AAP Senior Political Writer

Federal police have suspended an investigation into claims former Howard government minister Mal Brough was part of a conspiracy to bring down former parliamentary speaker Peter Slipper.

Labor backbencher Graham Perrett wrote to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in December asking them to investigate Mr Brough and others singled out in a Federal Court judgment that dismissed former staffer James Ashby's sexual harassment case against Mr Slipper.

Justice Steven Rares had described the case as an abuse of process, saying Mr Ashby had acted in combination with fellow Slipper staffer Karen Doane and Mr Brough, who is running as the Liberal National Party candidate for Mr Slipper's federal seat of Fisher.

In his letter, Mr Perrett said the judgment indicated there may have been a "political conspiracy" designed to harm Mr Slipper and the federal Labor government.

AFP Commander Errol Raiser responded to Mr Perrett earlier this month, saying the agency's investigation had been suspended until after an appeal application related to the Ashby case was heard in Sydney on May 30.

Mr Perrett released the letter he received from Cmdr Raiser to the media on Thursday.

"As the facts surrounding the appeal are consistent with your referral, the AFP has suspended its evaluation of the matter until the outcome of the appeal has been finalised," Cmdr Raiser says.

Mr Slipper said he found it odd the AFP would suspend its investigation, given that Mr Brough was not involved in the application to appeal the court decision.

"To my knowledge, Brough and Doane ... are not seeking to contest the judge's adverse findings against them and thus have not sought leave of the court to challenge His Honour's findings," he told AAP on Thursday.

"In these circumstances it is difficult to understand why the AFP has suspended/postponed, though not cancelled, its investigation of the matters raised in Mr Perrett's letter to the AFP commissioner."

But he said it was clear the AFP was taking Mr Perrett's complaint "very seriously".

Mr Perrett told AAP he intended to write back to the AFP pointing out that Mr Brough was not involved in the court appeal.

He said the "injustice" needed to be dealt with well before the federal election on September 14.

"It's a strange premise to drop the investigation given that leads get cold, trails get stale and time is a crucial factor," Mr Perrett said.

"We've got 198 days to an election when Mr Slipper's character is going to be a key matter for him."